West and Southern Africa
Early Cretaceous syn-rift petroleum systems in the central sector of the West African margin are an important economic resource comprising lacustrine source rocks, enigmatic carbonate reservoirs and an evaporitic seal. Mid Cretaceous and younger post-rift petroleum systems around the whole of the West and southern Africa margin are dominated by siliciclastic turbidite and contourite systems, sourced and sealed by marine mudstones and, where underlain by evaporites, affected by halokinesis.
Map of Region
Regional Expertise
CASP has conducted a relatively limited range of research along the central and southern sectors of the West African margin. Fieldwork in South Africa and the Falkland Islands-Malvinas was carried out in the late 1990s to test the break-up rotation model of the latter region. This research formed part of a wider effort to generate palinspastic plate reconstructions of South Atlantic break-up and was accompanied by a desk study that examined factors controlling sand supply to offshore Africa from Senegal to Kenya from the Cretaceous onwards. Our most recent studies have used analogues and laboratory experiments to provide insights into the genesis and nature of Pre-Salt carbonate reservoirs.
Most Recent Reports
- Palaeoecology, taphonomy and diagenesis of Early Jurassic shell accumulations in Lake Sichuan, China, and their implications for Pre-Salt reservoirs in the South Atlantic CASP.CCPS2017-19.4
- Early Jurassic coquinas from Lake Sichuan, China – a depositional analogue for Cretaceous Pre-Salt reservoirs in the South Atlantic? CASP.CCPS2017-19.3
- Basement control on Gondwana continental break-up in South Africa: Significance for the rifting of the South Atlantic CASP.SAP.22
- Stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Permian of the Falkland Islands: Lithostratigraphic and Palaeoenvironmental links with South Africa CASP.SAP.8
- Sand supply to the West African margin: An integrated GIS study CASP.SAP.16